I am a Muslim deeply involved in American politics. However the Muslims I go to school with are trying to convince me that it is haraam. They tell me such cliched things as we must only govern by Allah's laws, that there is no room for compromise in Islam, and that we must have a Caliphate. Please explain to me what my response should be. Also I intend to run for public office as soon as I am out of college. Please advise me on how I can be involved in the cleaning of my soul and still be invovled in politics.

What are those Muslims doing in that school, absorbing its values day after day for years, if they are averse to fulfilling the duties of citizenship in American society? Are they learning Qur'an and Sunna there or are they learning Locke and John Stuart Mill?

Sad to see, many misguided Muslim students switch to computer science pretending that it is a religion-neutral major, abandoning medicine, law, and politics to the enemies of Islam! Would that they at least spoke other than poor English and searched for ways to purify their souls with the same diligence with which they obtain U.S. degrees and green cards but no. What will Americans want to do with their Islam?

You must continue your work - actually, it is jihad - to effect change in the way of Allah inside the prevalent structures with wisdom and heart and know that those cliches you mentioned will always accompany you.

Your response should be that involvement in politics in order to effect change is by far a lesser evil than defeatist isolationism and in fact is a duty for it is _the_ most effective way to "change something wrong by hand or by word..." - as the Prophet ordered - in the American system.

Postponing obedience to this hadith - which also represents Allah's Law - on the grounds that we should have (their idea of) Khilafa or nothing, is really a satanic design to keep Muslims out of the decision-making process.

They want Muslims forever disorganized, stultified, alienated, discordant, recycling conspiracy and other truisms ("We must practice Islam as an ideology") and illusions of grandeur, uninformed of what is going on and impotent to do anything about it.

Countless sincere Muslims have worked intelligently within corrupt systems and have been empowered to do good by the grace of Allah. While many of those who go on and on about khilafa do not begin to show a true concern for Islamic ethics in the first place, nor is the understanding of the fundamentals in the best of the modern-Khilafa advocates - those who try hard to formulate coherent solutions - the correct one.

As for your last question, you should look for a murshid - a spiritual guide - and take up a wird/wazifa - a spiritual discipline - to complement your daily religious obligations.